Williams Sisters, Federer, Nadal, and … Who?
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Wimbledon, England — Grass, all-white outfits, and strawberries soaked in cream — these are the most well-known traditions of Wimbledon. Yet there’s a less often discussed, but perhaps more important, tradition that’s been cast aside this year: Predictability. Wimbledon is not usually a place for upsets. Far more often than not, its champions have been dominant ones, men such as Roger Federer and Pete Sampras and women such as Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova. It’s a tournament where the best and most powerful players have generally proven their superiority, mostly for the simple reason that grass, fast and slick, rewards their offensive skills and puts weaker players at a disadvantage.
Not so this year. After a week of abundant sunshine and often wacky tennis, the draws have, quite simply, been blown to bits. Of the 16 men who remain, six are unseeded. Of the 16 women who remain, five are unseeded and two of the top four seeds — Ana Ivanovic, the no. 1 player in the world and the French Open champion, and Maria Sharapova, ranked no. 3 and a former champion here — have departed. The weather has been great, but it’s been one of the stormier tournaments in memory.
The quarter of the men’s draw that had been anchored by Nikolay Davydenko (first-round loss) and Andy Roddick (second-round loss) will produce a first-time Wimbledon semifinalist. The four men in question, Janko Tipsarevic, Rainer Schuettler, Marin Cilic, and Arnaud Clement, are unseeded. Two of them, Clement and Schuettler, are 30 years old or older. It’s the strangest, and weakest, assemblage of players in a Wimbledon quarter one will ever see.
The likeable and intelligent Tipsarevic is the sentimental favorite, but Cilic, who has gone mostly unnoticed so far, could attract a lot of attention in the next few days. The 19-year-old Croat has a powerful serve and forehand and, though his movement is suspect, he can hide that on grass if he continues to slug the ball. So far, Cilic has beaten Jarkko Nieminen, always a difficult opponent, and Paul-Henri Mathieu. If he wins twice more, he could face Rafael Nadal in the semifinal (Nadal has two tricky matches in front of him, the first against Mikhail Youzhny, who took two sets from Nadal here last year, and then against the winner of Andy Murray and Richard Gasquet).
The two most dangerous of the unseeded men are in Federer’s half of the draw. Mario Ancic was the last man to beat Federer at Wimbledon (38 matches and six years ago — it’s been a while). Mononucleosis and other injuries sidetracked Ancic for months in those intervening years, but he’s back in form now, playing the most traditional grass-court game of all the men who remain. The other threat, Marat Safin, is looking for his first Wimbledon quarterfinal since 2001, less than a year after he won his first major title at the 2000 U.S. Open. In those days, Safin was the future of men’s tennis: A clean ball striker with the shoulders of an NFL tight end, but quicker feet. Unfortunately, his mind, ever wandering through fits of boredom and anger, prevented him from winning another major title until the 2005 Australian Open. There’s no tournament Safin can’t win; there’s also no match he can’t lose. Which will it be in week two?
If someone had asked me, before this tournament began, what would have to happen for Alla Kudryavtseva (a 20-year-old Russian ranked no. 154), Alisa Kleybanova (an 18-year-old Russian ranked no. 42), Tamarine Tanasugarn (a 31-year-old Thai), Zheng Jie (a 24-year-old Chinese doubles expert ranked no. 133), and Bethanie Mattek (a 23-year-old American better known for her loud clothes than her tennis) all to reach the second week of Wimbledon, I likely would have answered, “Food poisoning — and lots of it.” Tanasugarn has been this far at Wimbledon six previous times; she’s great on grass and has made a living at this tournament. But the other women are either surprises or outright shockers.
Mattek and Zheng deserve a closer look. After last year’s U.S. Open, Mattek made the unusual decision to stop playing tennis for three months to improve her conditioning. It has paid off this season and given her a chance to play Serena Williams today on Court 2, the home of many of Wimbledon’s relatively few upsets. Zheng will figure largely in China’s quest for a gold medal in tennis at this year’s Olympics, but right now she has a legitimate shot at the Wimbledon semifinals. Her next opponent, Agnes Szavay, is a talented youngster, but she’s struggled for much of the season and in two of her three matches here. If Zheng prevails, she would play the winner of Nicole Vaidisova and Anna Chakvetadze, who have been in bad slumps, too (the Vaidisova-Chakvetadze match ought to be high on drama, no matter how low the quality of tennis).
This tournament, of course, still has time to resurrect its traditions, and that’s what I would predict for the second week. Federer and Nadal seem destined for a third straight final, but if they meet this time, as many people will pick Nadal to win as will pick Federer (and they won’t be unwise to say so). The Williams sisters, the two best women at Wimbledon since Graf, haven’t met in a major final since Wimbledon in 2003. The upsets of Ivanovic and Sharapova make this their best chance to revisit the family final that many thought would become the norm at all the majors. Right now, Serena seems susceptible to an upset, as she didn’t move well against Amelie Mauresmo in the third round; Mattek and her big serve will give Serena more of a challenge than many people expect. That is, more than most people might normally expect. This is Wimbledon, after all, isn’t it?
Mr. Perrotta is a senior editor at Tennis magazine. He can be reached at tperrotta@ tennismagazine.com.